JOHN COFFELTEditor

Several of the county’s rural volunteer fire department representatives approached the Health Welfare and Recreation Commission at the Sept. 27 meeting with concerns about how the new digital radios that the county has switched to function.

The new digital radios purchased with $2.3 million in American Recovery Act funds and went online in March, are part of the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN), a statewide radio system that provides communication connectivity infrastructure. The county is one of the first to switch to the statewide network, but unit reception and hardware replacement costs has created some critics among some first responders.

Summitville Fire Chief Donnie Spears said that his department has had serious reception issues.

“We spent all this money on new radios and they don’t work, just like the other ones.” Spears said. “They have more dead spots and a lot of them are not fire rated,” he said. The standard radios and shoulder microphones are not rated to handle the high temperatures that a firefighter’s gear could be exposed to. A replacement mic would cost the department $500.

“If we go into a structure, we have to go to another channel to talk to each other. Our other radios, we didn’t have to do that,” Spears said.

Large buildings present problems for all two-way radios. They are particularly problematic, the firefighters say, with the new digital radios. One workaround for some departments is that some of the radios have Wi-Fi connectivity, or cell phone hotspot connectivity. Manchester Fire Department purchased truck-based repeaters help with the portable unit communications.

According to Sheriff Chad Partin, who is on the state TACN board, plans are underway to build new towers in area that will help with dead spots.

Summitville in particular is at the converging edge of tower coverage across the region. A new tower is planned to go in at the Summitville Mountain, but that project could take up to two years to come online, leaving the rural fire departments with the choice of as a whole, going back to the old system or continuing with the new ones.

Another quirk of the system is a signal shadow in the driveway to the Coffee County Communication Center. Ambulance that stage there on standby cannot receive transmission at the top of the hill. To hear dispatchers yards away, they must pull near Highway 55.

The chiefs said that concerns with the radios prior to the purchase fell on deaf ears. Hillsboro Fire Chief Brandon Gunn said that one of his firefighters had experience with the TACN system in Rutherford County and warned of potential problems.

Partin said the county is on the leading edge of the system and as with any new system, there are always implementation problems.

“Guys, if you’re not happy with the radios, turn them in and go back to your old system,” he said. “If you want to keep the radios, I need you to work with us.”

Partin said that the state is spending upwards of $360 million to enhance the TACN system.

“We are far advanced. You have three towers covering us, but you’re fixing to have two more. You’re going to have a 300-foot tower on top the (Summitville) caves…we’re going to buy capacity at (Bedford County’s tower going up at) Rippy Ridge that’s going to cover a dead spot at Normandy lake and the northern end of the county, we are also in negotiation with AEDC (Arnold Engineering and Development Center) at their 300-foot tower…that will help a lot in our industrial park,” Partin said.

Partin offered to visit each of the county’s volunteer fire department to provide in-service training to implement practices like that could help.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.